Homegrown Video did not win any awards this year at the AVN Adult Video Awards. Pretty tragic but we will get over it. Besides, the categories that we should have, would have won hands down (in the pants) were noticeably absent from the program.

1. “Best Cum Covered Brown Couch” – the award given to the brown couch that looks like it has had the most sex performed on it.

2. “Lifetime Achievement Amateur Couple” – Given to the Homegrown amateur couple that has been making videos for Homegrown the longest. Owner, president, and performer “Tim Lake” is ineligible.

3. ”Best Supporting Pet” – A tribute paid the the pet that walks across the bed the most times during an amateur porn shoot.

4. “Longest Close Up” A technical award given to the amateur video that focuses on a tight close up of a cock in any available orifice, mouth, pussy, ass; keeping focus is critical to impressing the judges.

5. The “Homegrown Video True Blue Amateur” award. This award is given by Homegrown Video to acknowledge the amateur porn submission that really embodies the true blue spirit of amateur porn so that an award for real amateur porn goes to a real amateur porn video and not a studio produced fake amateur porn scene.

I am not going to be too sour grapes about the fact that Jules Jordan and VIVID both won awards for amateur porn while Homegrown was completely passed up. The movie “Rain Man” beat out “Goodfellas” at the Academy Awards. Which of those films withstood the test of time better?

That is all I have to say.

That…

and AVN needs to figure out what amateur porn really is because last time I looked people still watch amateur porn.

The recent death by firing squad of Kim Jong-un’s girlfriend for the simple so-called crime of making amateur porn demonstrates how a totalitarian regime, no matter if it is political, religious, or class based, controls sex and sexuality to subjugate completely the heart and souls of its people. Nothing is so universal, as well as so personal, as the freedom to express one’s sexuality; therefore, it should be held as a basic human right. However, history shows that when governments control this natural impulse, literally the heart and soul of life’s most sacred act of creativity, humanity is unjustly shackled, easily repressed, then dominated completely.

Before the Nazis came for the Jews, they “cleansed” society of the pornographers and the gays, and no one complained, because those people were pretty much universally held in complete contempt for their so-called sexual deviance by a society that was highly repressed toward sexuality. The use of gang rape by religious fundamentalists in India, employed as a means of discouraging women from engaging in public political protest, the anti gay legislation in countries around the world, and death by a firing squad in North Korea, all are ways in which sex and sexuality are persecuted. So, as much as most people would not like to acknowledge openly, American freedoms, notably including the right to make home sex videos, typify a luxury of self determination, albeit in the form of erotic fulfillment, that resonates worldwide.

Homegrown Video is in a very unique position to see the political importance and revolutionary significance of how amateur porn works into this context. Because we get videos from all over the world, but intriguingly also from places where the punishment for making even amateur pornography can result in whippings and other forms of corporal punishment, life in jail, or even the death sentence, Homegrown Video has a rare insight into the motivations of people that would be willing to take such a risk.

Certainly, economic gain is a factor, but at Homegrown we are very conscience of discouraging any material that is even remotely suggestive of those who might be participating against his or her will to benefit the ill intentions of another’s purely profit driven motivations. People that make Homegrown Videos do so because they are going into it “eye wide open” and fully participatory. We also caution and counsel against taking unnecessary risks where the reward does not justify even the idea of the persecution that might result.

So, why would anyone from China, Syria, Uganda, or any other place where people want to make home sex videos to sell to Homegrown still want to do so knowing full well the potential consequences? They like the idea of it. It is something that they want to make money on, no doubt, but it is also a way that represents fun under the safety of an alias. They might don disguises, in which case, their actions are not dissimilar to any caped comic book crusader or anti-hero that has to assume an alternate identity in order to counter injustice with a desire for good deeds to confront, challenge, and combat tyranny and injustice.

For some, seeing those that “do porn” as champions of freedom and democracy or as revolutionaries fighting with pillows in a sense for basic human rights remains impossible. Unable to free the bonds of the stereotype that persists and makes people in the adult industry targets for everything from condescending disdain to being enemies of the State, many will have a hard time embracing the notion that the act of committing sexual enjoyment and exploration to recording can be considered a patriotic act. No one understands this better than those with the misfortune to live in cultures, societies, religions, etc. where sexuality of any kind is persecuted, where a simple beautiful act of nature can be twisted into becoming a crime against nature.

At Homegrown, a very fine line must be walked. We want to support those that wish to share their intimate videos but we do not want to have anyone suffer for it as a result. From the conservative counties of the USA like Broward in Florida, where people are arrested for lewd conduct for making amateur porn in the privacy of their own homes, to the countries in the Middle East where making porn is often a crime punishable by death, the risks must be addressed and fully understood in order for us to even think about purchasing those videos. We don’t want anyone to suffer for something that is supposed to be about joy and happiness. We do believe it is their right to make these videos, and we patriotically stand on the belief that the liberation of sexuality can plant the seeds of freedom, speaking in a language everyone can understand.

I am kind of confused by your question but I will try and answer. We don’t really pay by the number of camera angles. I don’t recommend multiple cameras either since it is hard to match the cameras and it often ends up being the same shot or the framing is off, etc.

The purpose of trying to capture the action from a few angles is to mix things up a bit and try to get coverage details, like close ups of penetration, and things like that.

Regarding using a camera person, that only makes sense if the camera person is someone that you can be completely comfortable with when the action gets going. There is nothing worse than a camera person that tries to direct the action and ends up killing the vibe. If you use a camera person, then they should try to be as invisible as possible or even be part of the action – for example, changing places to get in on the action while someone else takes over the shooting.

We will buy mask content but we offer less for it. We don’t do digital blurs of faces. I hope that answers your questions but if you still need anything then let me know.